


The Invasion

by Nickelsdamonstah



Series: Animorphs [1]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-15 23:27:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3465941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nickelsdamonstah/pseuds/Nickelsdamonstah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We all know the story. Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie and Marco all walk home one night through an abandoned construction site. Their lives are changed forever when an alien crash lands and tells them of a secret alien invasion. The five teens are the only chance the Earth now has of defeating the alien invaders. Armed only with the ability to turn into any animal they can touch, will they be able to win the fight?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my own update/rewrite to the series. I re-read them all and wanted to see if I could make them a little more adult, just for myself and for anyone who wants to read what I do. It is essentially a retelling of the same story, just in my way and with some of the original writing as well. I do not claim anything original in here at all aside from updates I may be adding to the story. Some chapters will be short like this first one, and I'm betting others will be much longer.

My name is Jake. Just Jake. I could tell you my full name, but that would be far too dangerous for me. For my friends. It would even be too risky for you know if that was my real first name. Controllers are everywhere, and if they knew my full name, they could find me and my friends. If they caught us, they could have us begging for death. And that’s why I won’t tell you any more about who I am. I can’t even tell you where I live. Just know that it’s a real place. A real city. I could even be your neighbor.

My only hope right now is that the human race can survive until the Andalite fleet comes to save us as they promised they would.

I used to be a normal kid with a normal life. The normalcy ended one Friday night at the mall. I was there with my best friend Marco. We had just the left the game store, drooling over the newest zombie game that we didn’t have enough money to buy yet. I had begged my parents for an advance on my allowance. They told me to get a job. I guess it didn’t matter anyway, Marco would beat me in any game we played. I was the one with the PlayStation 4 at home, but somehow, Marco could analyze a game and figure out all the little tricks. Sometimes I got lucky and won, but Marco was a gaming genius.

I usually gave a lame excuse for why he was able to beat me, but I did have a good one today. I had tried out for the basketball team today at school and hadn’t made the cut. That doesn’t quite sound like that big of a deal, but my brother, Tom, was a total legend on the high school basketball team. Now he’s the main scorer on a real college team. Everyone had expected me to make the team easy. Not so easy, I guess.

Tom and I hadn’t been hanging out as much as we used to. I had hoped making the high school team would get him to pay a little more attention to me, even though he was a college man now. He lived on campus, which was really just on the other side of town, but he was home at least every other day. I guess he missed Mom’s home cooking.

As Marco and I left the game store, we ran into Tobias. Literally. The poor kid had been walking fast, probably avoiding the two jerks that turned tail and ran as soon as they saw me. I’m not a scary person, but I know how to stand up to bullies. I helped Tobias up and looked him over. He was the new kid in school, which is probably one of the reasons why he was picked on.

“You alright?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “Just a little clumsy.” He didn’t want to mention the two guys from school, so I wouldn’t either. “What’s up?”

I shrugged. “Not much. We’re heading home.”

“No money for fun things.” Marco said, pulling his pockets inside out with a mock pouty face. “Certain people keep spending their money on unnecessary things like food and bus tickets. So then certain people don’t have enough money to buy cool zombie games.” Marco kept jerking his thumb at me, just in case Tobias couldn’t figure out who he meant by “certain people.”

“Hey, maybe I’ll walk home with you guys,” Tobias said with a slightly less than casual glance over his shoulder. I couldn’t blame him. Those were the same guys I had caught giving him a swirly about a week ago. I had walked into the bathroom to see the two of them each holding a foot. They had had Tobias’ head in the toilet, sending his straggly blond hair swirling around the bowl.

“Sure,” I said. “Why not?” The three of us turned and started toward the exit when I heard a loud dinging from my pocket. I pulled out my phone and saw a text from Rachel, my cousin. Marco yanked the phone from my hand.

“Is it your lover?” He taunted as he looked at the screen.

“Yes, it is my so lovely lover. I wanna marry that girl. Then I could be her cusband.” I gave my best southern drawl. Marco looked at me, giving his best proud father expression.

“My little boy is all grown up!” He exclaimed. “Using sarcasm and everything. Though stop, because sarcasm is mine.” He looked back down at the screen. “We’re coming up behind you. Took Cassie shopping. Te- Ow!” I suppressed a laugh. Rachel had hit him on the head.

“How long have you been standing there,” he asked.

“Long enough to hear Jake profess his southern love for his cousin.” Cassie said with a small grin. That’s when Rachel rounded on me.

“Cusband?” She demanded.

“Cousin husband!” Tobias blurted, laughing. “I get it.”

“So, shopping?” I turned to Cassie. “How did she manage to get you to go shopping?” Cassie was Rachel’s best friend. She usually wore loose fitting work jeans and a plaid shirt. Sometimes she even wore overalls and work boots. But today, Rachel had somehow gotten her into jeans that were actually meant for a girl and some kind of designer top. And, was that makeup? I’d be the first to admit that I can be unusually dense about these kinds of things, but it looked good on her. There was just enough to make her dark skin look beautiful.

Rachel was just the opposite. She always wore whatever she found to be stylish and she always looked like she had just walked off the front cover of some teen magazine. She was pretty, but I didn’t see her that way. She was my cousin and I definitely didn’t want to be her cusband. I did like Cassie though. She was much quieter than Rachel, more peaceful, like she understands everything on a different level than everyone else.

“You two going home?” I asked.

“You shouldn’t cut through the construction site by yourselves,” I said. “You know, being girls and all.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I regretted them. I should never have suggested to Rachel that she’s weak or helpless. She may look like some teen model, but she sometimes seems to be under the assumption that she’s Peggy Carter from that Marvel TV show.

“You going to come and protect us, you big strong man?” Rachel mocked. “You think we’re helpless just because – “

“Actually, I would appreciate it if they did walk with us,” Cassie interrupted. “I know you’re not afraid of anything, Rachel, but I guess I am.” Rachel didn’t seem to have anything to say to that. That’s the way Cassie is. She always seems to be able to know what to say to stop an argument without making anyone feel bad.

So there we were. The five of us: Marco, Tobias, Rachel, Cassie, and me. Five normal teenagers heading home from the mall. Sometimes I think about that final moment when we were still just five normal kids with normal worries. Worries like making the basketball team, or trying to get your friend to enjoy shopping at the mall as much as you do. It’s like it was all a million years ago, or a completely different group of kids. You know what I was afraid of right then? I was afraid of admitting to Tom that I hadn’t made the team. That was as scary as life got back then. Ten minutes later, life got a lot scarier.

To get home from the mall, we could take one of two routes. We could go the long way around, which is the infinitely safer route, or we could cut through the abandoned construction site and hope there weren’t any murderers lurking in the shadows. My parents claim they would ground me until I was twenty if they ever found out I cut through the construction site.

Naturally, we crossed the street and headed into the construction site. It was a large area, surrounded by trees on two sides and set a distance away from the mall. I could barely see the lights of the houses through a big open field on the other side. It’s a very isolated place.

Supposedly, it was going to be this new shopping center, something that could somehow co-exist with the mall, but now it was just a bunch of partially finished buildings looking like a forgotten ghost town. There were huge piles of rusted steel beams, large pyramids of giant concrete pipes that the homeless tend to sleep in at night. There were piles of dirt and pits that had filled with dark, murky water. And even a rusted, creaking crane I had climbed once while Marco stayed on the ground letting me know how much of an idiot I was being.

The place seemed completely deserted. But it was full of shadows and sounds that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. When Marco and I came here during the day, we always found beer cans and bottles. Sometimes we even found the ashes of campfires back in the hidden nooks and crannies of the buildings. So we definitely knew there were sometimes people in here at night. All this was on my mind as we made our way through the site.

My phone dinged again and I pulled it out, checking the message my mom had just sent asking where I was. I told her I was on my way home and would be there soon. I had to reassure her twice that I wasn’t cutting through the construction site.

“I’m going to be so dead if she ever finds out we cut through her tonight.” Add that to the list of fears I wish I could worry about again.

Tobias was the first one to see it. He had been walking along next to us, but he didn’t seem like he was actually with us. He was staring up at the sky, watching the stars off in his own little world. I had known him for a week and so far, this seemed to be normal for him. Suddenly, he stopped. He just stopped walking and we almost walked along without noticing until he said, “Look.” We turned and followed his finger, looking up at the sky.

“What?” I didn’t really want to be distracted because I was pretty sure I had heard someone walking in the shadows, creeping around behind us.

“Just look,” Tobias said. He kept pointing and the others were all looking. Either he had fooled everyone and made them look up, or the joke was on me to make me look up at nothing. It definitely wasn’t nothing.

I looked up, and there it was. A brilliant, blue-white light that slid across the sky. It was going fast at first, I thought it was just a shooting star, but then it started slowing down. “What is it?” I asked.

Tobias shook his head. “I don’t know.”

I looked at Tobias and he looked at me. I knew what I thought it was. And by his expression, I knew what he thought it was. Neither of us seemed to want to say it out loud, knowing that Marco and Rachel would most likely burst out laughing.

Cassie solved our problem for us when she just blurted it right out. “It’s a flying saucer!”


	2. Chapter 2

“A flying saucer?” Marco said, laughing. He promptly stopped mid-laugh when he looked up.

I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I was terrified and excited all at the same time. What was happening? Was this really an alien ship coming in to land? Or just some military experiment?

“It’s coming this way,” Rachel said.

“How can you tell?” I asked. “I can barely see any shape on it.”

“No, it _is_ coming this way,” Rachel asserted. She always had this way of talking, like she was sure of everything she said. She’s talked that way for as long as I can remember. She’s made more than one person question themselves by the way she talks.

Rachel was right. Whatever this thing was, it was definitely coming this way. At first it had just been a speck glowing in the sky. The speck had grown and became a shooting star across the sky. But now it was slowing down. And I could see pretty clearly what it looked like. And it wasn’t a military aircraft.

Cassie was half right. It was flying, but it wasn’t really a saucer. It wasn’t even all that big, only about as long as a bus. The front of it looked like some kind of pod, shaped almost like an egg. A long, narrow shaft extended from the back of the pod. Extending from the shaft on each side were two crooked, stubby wings. At least they looked like wings. They could have some weird purpose since wings weren’t really needed out in space. On each of these wings, there was what looked like some kind of tube that glowed a bright blue at the back end. Were those the engines? Or maybe some kind of advanced weapon?

Aside from the possibility of the blue glowing tubes on the wing things, the little ship looked almost harmless. But then you get to the far back of the ship and notice the tail. Or at least, it looked like a tail. It was a mean-looking tail that curved up and forward, coming to a point that looked sharp as a needle.

“That tail thing,” Marco said. “It looks like a weapon.”

“Definitely,” I agreed. “So the glowy blue things on the wings would be engines maybe?”

“Or possibly just lights like we have on our aircraft,” Tobias said.

The little ship kept coming nearer, going slower all the time. But not nearly slow enough.

“It’s stopping,” Rachel said in her definite way. She also had the same tone as I did, like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. And to be honest, it was extremely hard to believe. Don’t get me wrong, I have always believed there was life somewhere out there, but I never in a million years thought it would land in an abandoned construction site in front of me.

“Do you think it sees us?” Marco asked. “Should we run? Do you think it’s going to abduct us? Or maybe land on us? Hey, should we go get a camera? You know how much money we could get for a picture of a real alien space ship? Hell, we could get a video camera!”

“You have a camera on your phone, dumbass,” Rachel said, though she still had her unbelieving tone. The scene of us would have been comical if there wasn’t an alien ship coming towards us.

“Should we run?” Cassie asked.

“If we run, they might zap up with phasers on full power or something,” I said. I meant it as a joke, but nobody laughed. I didn’t even find it funny. As soon as I had said it, I eyed the tail thing again, imagining being shot by some laser beam coming out of it.

“Phasers are only on _Star Trek_ ,” Marco said, rolling his eyes the way he does whenever he thinks I’m being an idiot. Like he was some kind of an expert on space ships. Right.

The ship was still coming in too fast. It had slowed way down, but it seemed to be listing to one side, like it was damaged or something. Yes, it was definitely time to run. We all moved without a second thought and ran for cover at the small ship hid the ground. Dirt sprayed and a couple unfinished buildings crumbled as the ship slide through them, leaving a small crater in its wake.

The ship finally came to a stop, steaming and crackling. The five of us had taken cover behind a wall. We leaned around the corner to see the ship settle. Small panels opened and what had to be landing struts came out, pressing against the ground. It managed to push itself up a little, but one of the struts was broken, so it still rested in the dirt.

“What do you think it is?” Marco asked. He sounded scared now. Not so laid-back now that the ship was so close. Not to mention the fact it had almost crashed into us. I was a little scared too. And when I say a little scared, I mean so terrified I might wet myself at any moment. But at the same time, it was the coolest thing that had ever happened in my life. I mean, it was a space ship! Right in front of me!

When I looked over at Tobias, he was actually grinning. But I guess that’s Tobias for you. He never seems to be afraid of weird stuff. It’s the normal stuff he can’t stand, like the combination of bullies and toilets. “Do you think whoever’s in there survived the crash?” He looked concerned, but excited. His blond hair was sticking up all over. A quick glance at everyone else revealed similar conditions with their hair. Rachel’s was almost hilarious, her long blond hair standing on end. Must have been some kind of static electricity from the ship.

As we came out from behind the wall, I could see black scorch marks along the sides. One of the glowing blue tubes looked cracked and was leaking a small amount of blue mist. Hopefully it wasn’t poisonous or toxic.

I had to actively resist the urge to run yammering through the construction site, across the field and all the way home. There, I could crawl into my bed and pull the covers over my head and pretend nothing happened tonight. But I knew this was important. I had to stay and see it through.

I guess the others felt the same way because everyone just stood there as the shipped hummed and glowed in its small crater. I could see the scorch marks clearer now, all along one side and along the top of the pod section. Some of the skin of the pod looked like it had been melted, or burned away.

The glowing and humming of the crashed ship suddenly came to a stop and Rachel’s hair fell back down. She no longer looked ridiculous.

“It isn’t very big, is it?” Rachel whispered.

“It’s like the size of a bus,” I said. “Maybe a little bigger.”

“We should tell someone,” Marco said. “I mean, this is kind of huge, right? Space ships don’t just land in construction sites every day. We should call the cops, or the army, or the president or something. We’d be totally famous. We’d get to be on Ellen for sure.” Everyone looked at him.

“You watch Ellen?” Rachel asked.

“No.” Rachel obviously wasn’t convinced.

“You’re right,” I said. “We should call someone.” But none of us moved. It felt as though if we moved, we might frighten it away.

“Maybe we should try and talk to it,” Cassie suggested. Rachel was standing there with her hands on her hips, staring at the ship like it was some kind of puzzle she had to figure out.

“It’s a space ship,” Rachel said. “Not a raccoon.”

“I mean talking to who or whatever is inside,” Cassie said.

“Which could be a raccoon,” Marco suggested. “Or a green Zoe Saldana.” He grinned.

Tobias stepped forward, holding out his hands. I guess he was showing whoever was inside that he wasn’t carrying any kind of weapon or anything. “It’s safe,” he said in a loud, clear voice. He was exuding a confidence I had never seen before. He couldn’t stand up to bullies at school, but he could talk confidently to an alien ship. Tobias was an odd kid. “We won’t hurt you.”

“Do you think they can speak English?” I wondered.

“Well everyone speaks English in every science fiction movie ever,” Cassie said with a nervous laugh.

Tobias tried again. “Please, come out. We won’t hurt you.”

<I know.>

I looked around, unsure of what had just happened. I know I had heard someone speak, but there hadn’t actually been any sound. Like it was a thought I had in my own head with someone else’s voice.

Maybe this was all just some weird dream caused by too much pizza before bed. I looked sideways at Cassie. She looked back at me and our eyes met. She had heard it too. I looked back to Rachel. She was looking around, like she was trying to find the source of the voice.

“Did everyone hear that?” Tobias whispered.

We all nodded. We had all heard it.

“Can you come out?” Tobias asked in his loud, talking-to-aliens voice.

<Yes. Do not be frightened.>

“We won’t be frightened,” Tobias said.

“Speak for yourself,” I muttered. The others mumbled nervously.

A thin arc of light appeared on the smooth side of the pod. A doorway. I couldn’t move. I just stood there, staring like an idiot with my mouth open as the pod opened.

The opening grew from a crescent moon shape to a full bright circle, a ramp extending out and settling slightly crooked on the ground.

And then he appeared.

The first thing I thought was that someone had melded a person together with a deer, like some kind of small centaur. The alien had a head, shoulders and arms that were more or less where they should have been, though the skin was a pale shade of blue. No, not skin. Fur? He seemed to be covered in a layer of fur. Below the waist, he had what appeared to be the body of a deer or a small horse, four legs and all.

He stepped through the doorway and I could see that even the fairly normal-looking parts of him weren’t all that normal. First of all, he had no mouth, or even a nose. At least not a nose that looked like anything I had seen. He had three vertical slits on his face that had to function as some sort of nose. And then there were his eyes. He had two exactly where they should have been, both a glittering green color. What was odd about his eyes was the second pair he had on the top of his head. He had what looked like some kind of movable antlers or horns on top of his head. They swiveled around and pointed the eyes in all directions.

I thought the eyes were getting a bit too alien for me, then I saw the tail. I suddenly understood why the ship’s design had included the dangerous looking tail at the back. The alien’s tail looked similar, though somehow much more deadly. It was like a massive scorpion’s tail, thick and powerful-looking. At the end of the tail was a very dangerous looking blade that glinted in the light from inside the ship. He was like his ship; somewhat harmless looking until you noticed the dangerous tail. This guy could do some damage if he wanted to.

“Hello,” Tobias said. His voice was gentle, like he was talking to baby. He was grinning from ear to ear.

It was then that I realized I was smiling too. And at the same moment, I realized there were tears in my eyes. I can’t really describe how I felt, except that it felt like this alien was someone I had known forever. Like an old friend I hadn’t seen in a long time.

<Hello,> the alien said, in that silent way you only heard inside your head.

“Hi,” we all said back.

Then, to my surprise, the alien staggered. He fell to his knees and landed hard on his side on the metal ramp. He slid the rest of the way down into the dirt. Tobias tried to rush to him and hold him up, but the alien was already down before Tobias could get to him.

“Oh my god!” Cassie said, rushing over, herself. “He’s hurt!” She leaned down to examine a wound along the alien’s right side.

<Yes. I am dying,> he said.

“Can we help you? We can call an ambulance or something,” Marco said.

“We can bandage the wound,” Cassie said. Rachel, get me the Forever 21 bag.” Rachel looked as though she had been slapped. Cassie sighed and looked up. “The one with my old clothes in it! I’ll rip them up and make some bandages.” Cassie’s parents are both veterinarians and she’s following in their footsteps. Not that this was an animal. Not exactly, anyway.

<No. I will die. The wound is fatal.>

“No!” I cried. “You can’t die! You’re the first alien to come to Earth! This is history! You can’t just die here!” I had no idea why I was suddenly so upset. I just knew that the thought of him dying hurt.

<I am not the first. There are many, many others.>

“Other aliens? Like you?” Tobias demanded.

The alien shook his head, his upper eyes remained fixed on Tobias. It was such a normal gesture coupled with something that was entirely alien. <Not like me.>

He cried out in pain, a silent sound that echoed horribly inside my mind. For a moment, I could actually feel him dying.

<Not like me,> he repeated. <They are different.>

“Different? How?” I asked.

I will remember his answer until the day I die.

He said, <They have come to destroy you.>


	3. Chapter 3

It was strange, the way we all just stood there as we were told some alien race had come to kill us all. Cassie gasped, Rachel just stared at the alien. I probably looked like an idiot with my mouth open catching flies. It’s not every day an alien crash lands his ship in front of you, so I guess that part’s a little understandable.

“No,” Marco said. I hit him in the side to make him shut up. “No, I mean, someone would have noticed aliens! I think I would know if Earth was under attack by some alien race!”

Tobias was still next to the blue alien, hovering over him protectively as Cassie pulled a shirt out of one of the shopping bags and pressed it gently to a small area of the large wound. I guess it was all she knew to do.

<They are called Yeerks. They are different from us.> He gestured to himself. <Different from you as well.>

“Are you saying they really are here? On Earth?” She stole a glance at Marco, then looked back to the dying alien.

<Many are here. Hundreds. Maybe more.>

“Then why hasn’t anyone noticed them?” Marco busted in again. “Like I said before, someone would have noticed them.”

<You do not understand,> the alien said, sounding more impatient now. <Yeerks are different. They do not have a body like you or I. They live inside the bodies of other species. They are parasites. They are almost powerless without hosts.> He cried out in pain, flooding my mind with the sound of a silent, screaming alien. My head throbbed with its own pain, but whether it was caused by the alien’s mind speak, or if I was feeling some of his pain, I didn’t know.

<They must have a host to live in. They enter the brain and are able to link with it, accessing every memory, thought and feeling. It is easier if they can get the host to accept them voluntarily. Otherwise, the host may be able to resist, at least a little.>

“Are you saying these things take over people’s brains?” Rachel asked. “Their bodies?”

“Like invasion of the body snatchers or something,” Marco said.

“Why are you telling us all this?” I asked the alien. “This is extremely serious stuff and we’re just kids. This is something the government should know about, not us. You should have landed at the white house or something.”

<We had hoped to stop them,> he continued. <Swarms of their fighters were waiting when our dome ship came out of Z-Space. We knew of their mother ship and were ready for the bug fighters. But the Yeerks surprised us, they had hidden a powerful Blade ship in a crater of your moon. We fought, but we lost. They have tracked me here. They will be here soon to eliminate all traces of me and my ship.>

“How can they do that?” Cassie wondered.

The alien seemed to smile with his eyes. <Their Dracon beams will leave nothing behind but a few molecules of this ship, and . . . this body,> he said. <I sent a message to my home world. We Andalites fight the Yeerks wherever they go throughout the universe. My people will send help, but it may take a year, even more, and by then the Yeerks will have control of this planet. After that, there is no hope. You must tell people. You must warn your people!>

Another spasm of pain ripped through him. And we all knew he was nearly gone.

“No one is ever going to believe us,” Marco said hopelessly. He looked at me and shook his head. “No way.”

He was right. If these Yeerks were to wipe out the Andalite’s ship, how on Earth would we ever convince people? They’d think we were either nuts or on drugs.

“I don’t care if he thinks he’s going to die, we have to try and help him,” Rachel said. “We can him to a hospital. Or maybe Cassie’s parents …”

<There is no time. No time,> the Andalite said. Then his eyes brightened. <Perhaps…>

“What?”

<Go into my ship. You will see a small blue box, very plain. Bring it to me. Quickly! | have very little time. And the Yeerks will find me soon.>

We all looked at each other. Who was going to be the one to go inside the ship? Somehow we all seemed to agree it would be me. Actually, _I_ didn’t agree, but everyone else did.

“Go ahead,” Tobias said. “I want to stay with him.” He was knelt beside the Andalite and placed a comforting hand on the alien’s narrow shoulder.

I looked at the doorway into the spacecraft. I glanced at Cassie.

“Go ahead,” she said, sending me a smile. “You’re not scared.”

She was wrong; I was plenty scared. But the way she smiled at me, I wasn’t about to weasel out.

I walked to the ramp, past the dying Andalite and up into the lopsided, crashed ship. Inside it smelled like burned wires and hot metal. It seemed large enough to me, but the Andalite was bigger than me, so it would probably fit only one. Everything that wasn’t charred from battle was a creamy sort of color. All the edges were rounded and the general shapes of everything tended to be oval. That’s what helped me spot the box so easily. It was sky blue and square. Maybe only four inches on each side. I picked it up, not expecting it to be as heavy as it was.

I stepped further into the ship. There was no chair, just a sort of open space where I guess the Andalite stood on his four hooves while he worked the few controls. There weren’t a lot of buttons or anything. I wondered if the Andalite controlled the ship with his thoughts.

I turned to head back out, but something caught my eye. It was a small model. No, not a model. My hands passed through it when I went to touch it. This was a hologram. It showed four Andalites all standing together. Two of them were very small, probably children. This had to be the Andalite’s family.

It made me sad to think he was here on Earth, dying, a million miles from his family. Dying because he had tried to protect the people of Earth. People he didn’t even know. I felt a small flame of anger against the Yeerks for making this happen.

I wiped at my eyes and went back outside to my friends and the Andalite. Either nobody noticed I had shed a tear inside the ship, or nobody mentioned it. I handed the box to the Andalite, unsure of what I could possibly say after what I had seen in the ship.

<Thank you,> he said, now holding the box out in front of him, as if showing it to us. <There is something I may be able to do to help you fight the Yeerks.>

“What?” Rachel asked.

<I know that you are young. I know that you have no power with which to fight the Yeerks. But I may be able to give you some small power that can help.>

We all looked at each other. All except Tobias, who never took his eyes off the alien. It was like he was transfixed by him, trying to figure out if he knew him from somewhere.

<If you wish, I can give you powers that no human being has ever had.>

“Powers?” Marco asked, skeptically. “What are you talking about?”

<This is Andalite technology that the Yeerks do not possess,> the Andalite explained. <A technology that enables us to pass unnoticed in many parts of the universe. The power to morph. We have never shared this power with another species. But your need is great and I see no other choice.>

“Morph? Morph how?” Rachel asked, her eyes narrowed at the Andalite.

<To change your bodies,> he said. <To become any other species. Any animal.>

Marco laughed derisively. “Become animals?” Marco isn’t really the most accepting person in the world.

<You will only need to touch a creature, to acquire its DNA pattern, and you will be able to become that creature. It requires concentration and determination, but, if you are strong you can do it. There are... limitations. Problems. Dangers, even. But there is no time to explain it all ... no time. You will have to learn for yourselves. But I first, do you wish to receive this power?>

“He’s kidding, right?” Marco asked me.

“No,” Tobias said softly. “He’s not kidding.”

“This is nuts,” Marco said. “This whole thing is nuts. Yeerks and spaceships and aliens taking over people’s brains and Andalites and the power to change into animals? Give me a break.”

“Yeah, it is beyond weird,” I agreed.

“We’re off the map of weirdness by this point. Rachel said. “But unless we’re all just dreaming, I think we’d better deal with this.”

“He’s dying,” Tobias reminded us.

“I’ll do it,” Cassie said. That surprised me. Cassie isn’t usually so quick to decide. But I guess, like Tobias, she felt the truth of what the Andalite was saying.

“I think we should all decide together, I suggested. “One way or the other.”

“What’s that?” Rachel asked. She was looking up toward the stars. Far, far overhead, two pinpoints of bright red light were shooting across the sky.

<Yeerks.> The Andalite said the word in our minds, and we could feel his hatred.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the story will start to differ. I know this is all the same with some slight differences to to the original, but after this, you'll see some of the plots of the first five or so books merging into one larger story. With the sillier bits meant for kids left out.

The two red lights slowed, turned in a circle and came back toward us. They had to be searching for the crashed ship. They probably knew it had come down this way, but were still working to pinpoint the location of the crash.

<There is no more time. You must decide!>

“We have to do it,” Tobias said. “How else can we fight these Yeerks?”

“This is insane!” Marco said. “Insane! Nuts! Bonkers!”

“I’d like more time to decide something this big,” Rachel said. “But we really don’t have a choice, do we? I’m for it.”

“What do you say, Jake?” Cassie asked me. I wasn’t entirely sure why Cassie was asking me, but then everyone else looked to me waiting for an answer. It felt like they all were waiting for me to say yes or no, like I was the one to decide for everyone.

I looked up at the Yeerk ships. What had the Andalite called them? Bug Fighters? They were getting closer, they would find the ship soon. And us. I looked down at the Andalite and thought of the picture of his family. Would they even know what had happened to him?

I looked at everyone around me: my usually funny, occasionally annoying best friend, Marco; Rachel, my smart, pretty, confident cousin; and Cassie, who everyone knew liked animals more than she liked most people. And I wasn’t quite ready to admit that I liked her as well.

Finally, I looked at Tobias. I didn’t know what I was feeling when I looked at him. I could feel a chill run down my spine. There was something about Tobias, kneeling next to a dying alien and wanting nothing more than to help him and to fight for him.

“We have to, Tobias said to me.

I nodded slowly, thoughts bubbling up through my thick mind. “Yeah. We really don’t have any other choice.”

<Then each of you, press your hand against one side of the cube.>

And we did. Five hands, each pressed against one side. The sixth hand, holding up the cube, had far too many fingers.

<Do not be afraid,> the Andalite said.

I felt a sort of warmth start in my hand, flow up my arm and spread over my entire body. It was the weirdest feeling ever, but I didn’t move. I couldn’t. I don’t know if it was fear, wonder, or some effect of that blue cube, but I didn’t move a single muscle.

<It is done,> he said. <Go now.> I could move again. <Take it with you. The Yeerks can never find this. If they do, the war is lost.> He pressed the cube into Tobias’ hands, then looked right at me. <And remember, you must never stay in animal form for more than two of your Earth hours. Never! That is the greatest danger of this technology. If you stay longer than two hours, you will be trapped forever, unable to return to human form.>

“Two hours,” I repeated.

The Andalite’s extra set of eyes swiveled upwards to look at the sky. The bug fighters were almost here, but there was a new ship with them as well.

<Visser Three! He is here!>

“What?” I was shaking. Something about the Andalite’s tone made me fearful of whatever or whoever Visser Three was.

<Go now! Run! Visser Three is here! He is the most deadly of our enemies! Of all Yeerks, he alone has the power to morph. The same power you now have. Now run!>

“No, we’ll stay with you,” Rachel said firmly. “Maybe we can help.”

It was as though the alien was smiling with his eyes. <No. You must save yourselves. Save yourselves and save your planet. The Yeerks are here.>

We all looked up, the lights were coming closer, coming in, ready to fly down to land.

“How are we supposed to fight them?” Rachel demanded. “How will we know who’s a host?”

<You will find a way. Now run!>

I jerked from the force of his command. “He’s right. Run!” I yelled.

We ran. All but Tobias, who knelt beside the Andalite and took his hand. The Andalite pressed his other hand against Tobias’s head. Tobias rocked back, like he’d been shocked. Then he, too, was up and running, stumbling over the loose junk and potholes of the construction site.

A beam of bright red light snapped on. It was a spotlight from one of the Bug fighters. The beam lit up the fallen Andalite and his ship. A spotlight from the second Bug fighter joined the first, and the Andalite shone brilliant as a star.

I hit the dirt hard. I saw my leg lit up within the circle of that spotlight. 1. I yanked it to me and crawled fast, scraping my elbows and knees over sharp stones.

The five of us crouched behind a low, crumbled wall, afraid to move, afraid to look, but just as afraid to look away.

Slowly the Bug fighters descended. It was easy to see where they’d gotten their nickname. They were slightly larger than the Andalite fighter and shaped like legless cockroaches. There were small windows like eyes on the forward-thrust head of the bug. And on either side of the head were two very long, very sharp, serrated spears.

The Yeerk Bug fighters touched down, one on either side of the Andalite ship.

“Okay, you can wake me up now,” Marco said in a rattled whisper. “I’ve had enough of this dream.”

The larger ship began to descend. I don’t know what it was about that ship, but as it got closer I started to feel like I couldn’t breathe. I tried to suck in a deep lungful of air and couldn’t. I tried to swallow and couldn’t. I wanted to run, but my legs were jelly- I was shaking from a fear so deep it was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. It was the same fear that the Andalite had shown when he’d realized Visser Three was coming.

The ship settled toward the ground. It looked like it was going to land directly on a big rusted earthmover parked there. But as the Visser’s ship descended, the earthmover just sizzled and disappeared.

Visser Three’s ship was built like some ancient weapon. It reminded me of one of those battle-axes the old-time knights used when they were hacking off the heads of their foes. There was a main part. Like the handle of the ax, with a big, triangular point on the front. That part had to be the bridge. At the rear were two huge, scimitar wings. It was eight or ten times the size of the Bug fighters.

The Blade ship landed. A door opened.

Cassie started to scream. I clamped my hand over her mouth.

They leaped from the ship, whirling and thrusting and slicing the air — creatures that looked like walking weapons. They stood on two bent-back legs and had two very long arms. On each arm there were curved horn-blades growing out of the wrist and elbow. There were other blades at their bent-back knees, and two more blades at the end of their tails. They had feet like a Tyrannosaurus rex.

But it was the head that got your attention, a neck like a snake, a mouth that was almost a falcon’s beak, and, from the forehead, three dagger like horns raked forward.

<Hork-Bajir hosts.>

I jumped, hearing the Andalite’s words in my mind again. They were fainter than before, trained, like someone yelling from far away.

“Did you guys .. ?” I asked.

Rachel nodded. “Yeah.”

<The Hork-Bajir are a good people, despite their fearsome looks,> the Andalite said. <But they have been enslaved by the Yeerks. Each of them now carries a Yeerk in his head. They are to be pitied.>

“Pity. Right,” Rachel said grimly. “They’re walking killing machines. Look at them!”

But our attention was drawn away by a new form that crept and slithered and shimmied out of the Blade ship.

<Taxxon hosts> the Andalite said. I knew he was trying to tell us all he could, even to the end. Trying to prepare us for what we were up against.

<The Taxxons are evil.>

‘Yeah,” Marco muttered. “I think I would have guessed that.”

They were like massive centipedes, twice as long as a grown man. So big around that if you tried to hug one, your arms wouldn’t make it even halfway. Not that anyone would ever want to.

They had dozens of legs that supported the lower two thirds of their bodies. The top third was held upright, and there the rows of legs became smaller, with little lobster-claw hands.

Around the top of their disgusting, tubular bodies were four eyes, each like a wiggling globule of red Jell-O. And at the very end, pointing straight up in the air, was a round mouth, ringed by hundreds of tiny teeth.

Hork-Bajir and Taxxons poured from the Blade ship, spreading out around the area like well-trained Marines. They were holding small, pistol sized things that were definitely weapons. They formed a ring around the Andalite and his ship.

Suddenly, one of the Hork-Bajir came straight toward us. He took one big, bounding step and he was practically on top of us.

I hugged the dirt like it was my last hope. I wished I could dig a hole. I saw a flash of Marcos’s face. His lips were drawn back in what could have been a grin, except that I knew it was an expression of pure terror.

The Hork-Bajir pointed what looked like a gun of some kind around at the darkness. its horned head swiveled left and right, peering into the gloom, looking for anyone that could be watching. I could only hope that it couldn’t see us where we were hidden.

<Silence!> The Andalite warned us. <Hork-Bajir do not see very well in the darkness, but their hearing is very good.>

The Hork-Bajir moved closer, now only six feet away with only a low wall between us. My heart was beating so loud in my chest that I was convinced the Hork-Bajir would hear it and come for me. I was so sure that I would die right there. I could see in my mind the way all those blades would separate my head from my body.

I wanted to scream, run, and wet my pants, anything. I wanted to just throw myself on the ground and cry, begging the aliens not to kill me. I had always thought I would be calm, cool and collected if I ever met an alien. But right now I was actually pretty surprised that I hadn’t wet my pants yet.

But then the Andalite spoke again. <Have courage, my friends.>

I don’t know if it was coming from the Andalite, or if I was somehow getting myself under control, but I was starting to feel a bit stronger. I was still utterly terrified and convinced I was going to die very soon, but I felt stronger, like I was somehow borrowing the courage of the doomed Andalite.

The Hork-Bajir moved away from us. It moved back towards the large Blade ship. Something new was coming out. I peeked through a broken, chipped away hole in the wall and that’s when I saw him.

<Visser Three,> the Andalite said.

Visser Three was an Andalite. Or, more specifically, an Andalite host.

<Only once has a Yeerk been able to take an Andalite body,> the Andalite said. <There is only one Andalite host. And that is Visser Three.>

Visser Three walked confidently toward the wounded Andalite. The Visser seemed so much like the Andalite it was hard to tell them apart at first. He had the same mouthless face; the same extra set of eyes that turned in all directions; the same powerful and sleek four-legged body; and the same wicked sharp tail. But somehow, no matter how much the Visser looked like the other Andalite, he somehow felt different. It was like he was wearing a mask, only you just knew that under the fake sweetness of the mask, there was something twisted and foul.

<Well, well,> Visser Three said. <What have we here? A meddling Andalite?> Visser Three looked more closely at the wrecked Andalite ship. <Ah, but no ordinary Andalite warrior. Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, if I am not mistaken. And honor to meet you again. You’re a legend now. How many of our fighters have you shredded? Seven, or was it eight by the time the battle ended?>

The Andalite didn’t answer. But I had the feeling maybe it had been more than eight.

<The very last Andalite in this sector of space. Yes, I’m afraid your Dome ship has been completely destroyed. I watched it burn through the atmosphere and crash into the ocean of this planet. The dome did not survive.> The Visser laughed. It was both a sound in our heads, but also a slight exhalation through the slits on his face that seemed like some kind of a nose.

<There will be others,> the Andalite prince said.

The Visser took a step closer to the Andalite, pressing a hoof against the burn wounds on his side, making him cry out in pain in our heads. <Yes, and when they come, this world will already be mine. My own contribution to the Yeerk Empire. Our greatest conquest. And then I’ll be Visser one!>

<Why do you want the Humans? You have your Taxxon allies. You have your Hork-Bajir slaves and the Gedds. Why these people?>

<They are the only class five species anyone has ever found. So numerous in number and no possible way to fight back! There are over seven billion potential hosts on this planet with the potential to breed exponentially. With this species, the Yeerk Empire will be the most powerful force in the universe! We would have to build a thousand new Yeerk pools just to accommodate this species alone! Face it, Andalite, you have fought well and bravely. But you have lost.>

The Andalite prince, despite his pain, struggled to his feet, gasping and wincing as he stood. He knew he was going to die. He wanted to die on his feet, looking his enemy in the face.

But Visser Three, it seemed, was not done taunting him. <I promise you one thing, Prince Elfangor. When we have this planet, with its rich harvest of bodies, we will move against the Andalite home world. I will personally hunt down your family. And I will personally oversee the placement of my most faithful lieutenants in their heads. I hope that they will resist so that I can hear their minds scream.>

Prince Elfangor’s tail moved so fast, I could barely see it. The Visser twisted his head aside, the tail blade missing him by inches. The Visser’s own tail whipped up, blocking the Prince’s. He then flicked his tail to the side and back up, slicing half of Prince Elfangor’s tail clean off. Blood drained from the wound. I could hear the cry of pain in my head. And the Visser wasn’t done yet. He dropped his tail back down to the side and flicked it again, severing a leg, forcing the Prince to fall back to the ground in agony.

The Visser sneered down at the Prince, shoving him down on his side, then pressing a hoof against his face. <The stories about you seem to have exaggerated your speed and strength, mighty Prince Elfangor. Now you’re nothing but a mere vecol, about to die!> that’s when the Visser began to morph.

His Andalite head started to grow. His four horse-like legs started to merge together, forming only two legs. Each leg became about as big around as a redwood tree. Those delicate Andalite arms seemed to lose all bone structure as they become what appeared to be tentacles. As his head grew larger and larger, a mouth split open, filling with teeth as long as my arm. The mouth grew wider across the massive, growing head, filling out into a terrifying, sharp toothed grin.

The Visser had become a huge monster that made the Hork-Bajir and Taxxons look like little toys by comparison. He reached down, wrapping a long tentacle around the Prince’s neck. I could feel Cassie next to me, shaking in fear and I risked a glance at my friends, each looked as terrified as I felt. Tobias had tears in his eyes and he looked like he was trying to go help the doomed Prince. Rachel’s fists were white, holding him back.

I put my arm around Cassie. I was shaking too. She buried her face in my chest, unable to watch. Marco sat there, shaking like me, hand over his mouth as he watched the horror of Visser Three. I managed to force myself to look back at the monster as he lifted Elfangor up off the ground, three legs flailing, blood dripping. He lifted him high into the air and opened that gaping, razor filled mouth.

Rachel lost her grip on Tobias. He jumped up and grabbed a piece of rusted pipe and started to climb over the wall. Everyone scrambled for him. Rachel grabbed his arm, Cassie had the bottom of his shirt and Marco and I each had a leg as we hauled him back over the wall, holding him down and covering his mouth.

“Tobias, please,” Cassie said. “He doesn’t want you do die for him. Don’t you realize? He’s dying for us.” Tobias stopped struggling, but we all kept a tight grip on him.

I managed to peek through the hole in the wall again, watching as the tentacle loosened its grip and the Andalite fell into the Visser’s monstrous mouth. Those teeth ripped him apart. We heard his screams of agony as he was chewed and sawed apart by the massive teeth. Bits and pieces fell from the Visser’s mouth and the Taxxons rushed over, licking at the blood and eating any parts that fell to the ground, including the leg and tail.

That’s when I heard something I wasn’t expecting. I heard laughter. Human laughter. I followed the sound and spotted a small group of humans behind the monstrously morphed Visser. Human Hosts, probably with terrified humans trapped in their own minds, watching the Visser eat his enemy.

Visser three started morphing back to his stolen Andalite body. <Nothing like a good Antarean Bogg morph for taking a bite out of your enemies.> He laughed, so did the humans. The Hork-Bajir made some kind of huffing noise that could be laughter.

Marco threw up, which was quite understandable under the circumstances. But that caught the attention of the nearest Hork-Bajir. It turned toward us, training its eyes on our hiding spot. After a minute, the Hork-Bajir started to turn away. I felt the vibration in my pocket a second before my phone dinged at me, alerting me to a new message. Mom! Dinner! I was supposed to be home, but I was here, watching an alien die.

A cry went up from the Hork-Bajir, who turned back toward us. My mother might have just killed us.

“Split up,” I yelled as we all jumped up in a panic. “They can’t follow all of us.”

Marco and Tobias and Cassie took off in three different directions. Rachel was still right beside me. Glancing back, I saw the Hork-Bajir hesitate, unsure of who to chase.

Rachel and I are the fastest runners. Tobias is totally out of shape, and Marco and Cassie are too short to be really fast. So I figured if the aliens were going to chase anyone, it ought to us.

I guess Rachel thought the same thing. She slowed down just a little and began yelling and waving her arms. “Come on! Come on, you sissy little bitches! Come and get some!” I was a little shocked at Rachel taunting the deadly aliens, to say the least.

The two nearest Hork-Bajir snapped around and took off after us. “Ghafrash! Here! Ghafrash fit! Enemy! Get!”

Even in my panic it surprised me. They were talking some mix of their own alien language and ours.

“Ghafrash fit nahar! I get! I kill!”

Suddenly my foot slammed something and I was down. I hit the ground hard. The wind was knocked out of me. I tried to fill my lungs again. Rachel ran on. She didn’t know I had fallen.

A spear of red light struck a concrete pipe just beside me. The concrete vaporized. The two Hork-Bajir Were coming after us. I jumped up, running after Rachel, away from the Hork-Bajir.

Rachel had realized I wasn’t with her anymore, she stopped, looking around to see where I had gone. “Don’t be an idiot!” I yelled. “Run!” Without hesitation, she started running again.

I saw a dark doorway ahead and raced toward it. It was one of the buildings that had almost been completed. Just bare concrete walls and scattered junk. But I knew I had been in here before. Marco and I had walked all through it. There were hallways and little side rooms. It was like a maze.

Marco! Rachel! Had they gotten away? And what about Cassie and Tobias?

I tried to get my brain to concentrate as I scurried across the first big room. There was a corridor . . . somewhere. I groped in the dark and found a wall.

I heard the sound of clawed feet. They sounded huge, scraping across the bare concrete of the floor. A bottle skittered across the floor, kicked by the Hork-Bajir. They were close! They were in the room with me and in this total darkness, my vision wasn’t any better than theirs.

I felt my hand go into emptiness. A doorway! The corridor! I turned and walked along in the darkness, doing my best to keep each step as silent as I could. As soon as I was into the hallway, a light flicked on behind me. Someone had brought a flashlight!

“Efnud to tell fallay nyot fit? Whatever order”

“No. No need to capture them. Whoever you find, kill.”

The first voice had been Hork-Bajir. The second voice was human. And the weird thing was, that voice sounded familiar. I knew I had heard that voice before, but my mind was too scrambled to think completely straight at the moment.

“Just save the head. Bring that to me and we can identify it.”

I slunk along the wall, down the hallway as the flashlight moved around the room, coming ever closer to the doorway that led to me. I ducked into another room and my foot connected with something soft.

“Hey!”

It was a man! He had been lying on the ground, wrapped in a blanket to keep warm on this cold night. If he had heard the events that had happened on the other side of the construction site, he didn’t show it.

“Get outta here! This is my place! I aint got nothin’ for you to steal!”

I wanted to warn him. I wanted to try and help him get out of there, but I could hear the Hork-Bajir coming down the hall. I spotted a window that led into a dark, unfinished alley and dove through it just as the Hork-Bajir came into the room.

The man’s scream was cut short as I heard the Hork-Bajir remove his head. I felt terrible for the man, but I felt even more terrible that I was glad it hadn’t been me. With the Hork-Bajir distracted, I ran, avoiding other search parties. I made it out of the abandoned construction site and didn’t stop running until I made it home, wheezing and coughing.

“Where have you been? You missed dinner completely!” My mother yelled as I ran into the house and up to my room. I didn’t even change my clothes. I just kicked off my shoes and climbed into my bed, pulling my blankets tight around me, trying to come to terms with the fact that I had just watched what was probably some kind of a mighty alien warrior prince get eaten by another alien, right after I was told that evil parasitic aliens were invading my planet. And earlier I was worried about telling my brother I hadn’t made the basketball team.


End file.
